National Council Against Health Fraud

The National Council Against Health Fraud is a nonprofit, tax-exempt group "focused upon health fraud, misinformation, and quackery as public health problems." THE NCAHF site is run by board member Stephen Barrett, M.D. The organization produces a weekly e-mail newsletter Consumer Health Digest in association with Quackwatch (http://www.quackwatch.org/). It has a website but its 990 forms indicate no income or expenses in the tax year 2006, the last year for its financial reporting available on Guidestar.

The organization has rankled promoters of "alternative health" programs, some of which have questioned or attacked the credibility of the organization. For example, Dr. James P. Carter has noted that the NCAHF is an outgrowth of the AMA's Coordinating Conference on Health Information (CCHI), which challenged the chiropractic profession (see, Wilk v. American Medical Association, 895 F.2d 352 (7th Cir. 1990), ruling against the AMA in an antitrust challenge). James P. Carter, M.D., RACKETEERING IN MEDICINE, THE SUPPRESSION OF ALTERNATIVES, published by Hampton Roads Publishing Co. Inc., 1993, (ISBN 1-878901-32-X).</ref